


one last hurrah

by obscurityofphylum



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: I love them they’re my favorites sorry, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Klaus Allison dynamic, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Klaus and Allison bonding, Light Angst, Reginald Hargreeves’ A+ Parenting, no beta we die like ben
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:34:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25700668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obscurityofphylum/pseuds/obscurityofphylum
Summary: klaus and allison have one last conversation before she leaves the mansion.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 69





	one last hurrah

the leaving was the easy part.

diego did it. in january of 2007, just a few short months after their sixteenth birthday, he left with nothing but a duffel bag and the clothes on his back.

vanya was next. she left in march of the same year, to college in new hampshire for a musical arts degree. 

allison left in september, a mere six days before their seventeenth birthday. but first, she had a conversation with klaus.

it was nearly two in the morning when klaus's skittish footsteps stopped at her bedroom door, not even bothering to knock. he slid in with a cat-like grace, settling onto the side of the bed that wasn't occupied with her neatly folded clothes, ready to be packed.

he waved his hello hand and she shook her head, concealing a smile. the tattoos hadn't gone over well with dad. she doubted he even remembered getting them.

"bonjour." klaus grinned goofily, watching as she folded more blouses. 

"hey. have you been drinking?" allison asked, already knowing the answer. his cheeks were flushed red and his eyes were glassy, an obvious end to her quarry. the visits to dad's liquor cabinet were getting more and more frequent, and it's not like she could blame him. ben had died nine months ago. 

"irrelevant. one last hurrah?" he asked, pulling a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. she rolled her eyes but snatched one from the box. klaus smiled, all toothy and fox-like from the side of his mouth.

she doesn't understand him. 

almost seventeen years of living under the same roof and she still has no clue what he'll say or do in any situation. she's heard of and dealt with unpredictable people, but klaus takes the cake. 

even when they were little, he was at war with himself. over the ghosts. she remembers so many nights where he'd tuck himself into her bed in the middle of the night, his hair tickling her chin and the scent of shampoo wafting into her nostrils as he cried himself to sleep. 

when they got older, they grew apart. klaus was less and less present in himself as the drugs took control, but that didn't mean allison didn't feel protective of him still. that was her little brother, and it felt like watching a car wreck in slow motion: an inevitable destruction, one she couldn't protect him from. when he started doing cocaine at fifteen, she realized things couldn't be fixed with a bandaid and a hug anymore. 

she perched on the windowsill, embracing the ugly view outside her window for the first time. all fire escapes and flat rooftops, beautiful and damned. klaus planted himself near where her foot was dangling off the inside ledge, humming to himself as he flicked his lighter.

the sparks ignited the paper ending of the cigarette, glowing orange and white. allison doesn't remember the last time she's seen him so focused on something, his eyes so clear. he reaches for hers, his hands trembling as she hands over the cigarette and lets him light it for her.

she takes a shallow inhale of smoke and feels the itch in the back of her throat grow unbearable, turning into a coughing fit. 

"amateur." klaus just giggles, taking a long drag of his own cigarette that was perched expertly between his fingers. it made her feel damn melancholy. 

"whatever." she laughed softly. they didn't say anything for a while. they didn't need to. they were perfectly content listening to the sounds of the city below them: unorganized shouts every now and again, horns honking, the chirp of cicadas. klaus's voice broke through her thoughts. 

"he's putting me away, ally. shinyview, on the other side of the city. he's getting rid of me." he said unexpectedly, his expression unreadable. the way he gritted his teeth as his eyes began to water made her stomach flip.

"i... i'm sorry." she couldn't think of anything else to say. it was stupid. but she was sorry, damn sorry that she could leave it all behind and he couldn't. he didn't say anything in return.

"ally, i think m' gonna die young. i think i have to." klaus's voice shook, tiptoeing the fine line between tears and laughter. he wrapped his skinny arms around his torso as he giggled hysterically, and allison didn't miss how his hands trembled around the cigarette perched between his shaking fingers.

"don't say that, klaus. that's not funny." she said, and his laughter ceased as he looked up at her. klaus gestured vaguely, hands waving, before slumping back onto the floor, laying on his back and staring up at the ceiling. he sighed, and after a long moment he started to speak again.

"m' gonna die young, just like ben. you remember that book we read for english? catcher in the rye? i wanna be the catcher he was talking about-" klaus paused to clear his throat, ensuing with another bought of hiccup-filled chuckles. "the one who stands at the edge and catches all the children. yeah, m' gonna die, ally. me and ben, ben and me. we'll be the catchers." 

"i don't understand anything you're saying. should i get mom?" allison asked, staring down at her brother from her perch on the windowsill. she had long since extinguished her own cigarette, tracing the smoldering ashes on the stone ledge with her fingertip absentmindedly.

klaus was pale. he always was, but she recognized it even more now. his skin was milky white, the same sickly color she had pined over in every fashion magazine. even now, on their seventeenth birthday, she couldn't say she wasn't jealous of him. he always had what she always wanted: that carefree charm, the knowledge that he owned every room he entered. she pursed her lips thinking of the interviewers with their eyes glued on her brother, and klaus soaking up the attention. the charmer of the family, the unconventional, tragic type of beauty. even with her powers, he was always a much better manipulator than she was. 

"of course you don't. none of you assholes understand. i'm going to go talk to ben, he understands." klaus muttered, and without warning, he jammed the burning end of his cigarette into the flesh of his arm. she cringed at the sizzling sound of his flesh, but klaus didn't even give as much as a grimace. instead, he laughed. the bastard laughed, low and wet with tears. he was truly unpredictable. 

before she could stop him, he was rising to his feet and stalking away. he had the same primal gait as luther and diego, the same way reginald had taught them all to walk, like a predator. she garunteed that if he were facing her, he'd have the wild, dangerous look in his eyes to match his walk. some part of her wondered if she walked like that too.

allison knew better than to pursue him. he'd shut her out. that was klaus. if you tried to hard to make him open up, he'd run. despite being chaos on legs, he carefully planned the parts of himself he wanted each person who knew him to see. 

so she closed her window, freshly manicured nails flicking the latches shut, and climbed into bed. she didn't sleep a wink that night, her stomach twisting into knots as the cloud of anxiety in her head began to rain. 

she didn't see klaus in the morning. the only sibling she got to say goodbye to was luther, with a quick, somber hug and a look of longing once she had walked away. pogo made sure she had everything she needed, and grace made her promise to take care of herself. 

so, with nothing but a suitcase of the necessities and a one-way ticket to los angeles, she left the academy (and klaus) behind.


End file.
